Bail reform cannot protect us

Bail reform cannot protect us

Three years ago, we responded to the growing numbers of women in prison, especially women being held on remand, pre-sentence by developing Victoria’s first dedicated criminal defence practice for women. We get women out on bail. We get them linked to services and that means we get them better outcomes at the point of sentence. This is what is needed, not tougher bail laws that hurt the people who need more support, not more prison. In this election year we fear that we will see an acceleration of law and order talk and fear of granting bail that was again ignited last year by the Bourke Street incident.

But the knee-jerk response of bail reform will not deal with the structural and systemic problems that give rise to incidents of violence, particularly since the bail system already works in ways that pre-emptively remand people by virtue of the risk they pose. As with the parole reforms that came about after Adrian Bayley’s offending, reform developed in response to individual and exceptional events will only increase the number of significantly disadvantaged people on remand. Increased rates of imprisonment will create social, economic and human costs for the community, not make it safer. These punitive law changes highlight the inadequacies of the systems we have in place to respond to family violence and support people with acute mental health needs.

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About Us

The Law and Advocacy Centre for Women (LACW) is a new kind of legal practice for women. LACW combines excellence in legal advice and representation for women, with a commitment to holistic and preventative case management and engagement with therapeutic services. LACW acknowledges that it operates on Aboriginal country and pays our respects to the traditional owners and their elders past and present, in particular, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations. We recognise that the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, in particular those with experience of the criminal justice system, are complex and require specialist knowledge. Read more >